ASSets of Glutes

Fascia, Muscle bellies, spindles, GTOs, afferent/efferent all these common points have one global consideration: if you pull excessively on one point of the body your will inevitably cause a chain reaction to occur on all cellular levels of physiology. 

Currently the trend in female training is to grow glutes. Great trend to any hot blooded male, however efforts often go unwarranted in the quest toward an ASSet of magnificent proportions. What women are forgetting to incorporate is the overlooked stretch cycle required in order for the glutes to hypertrophy. Growing muscle is pretty easy, provide a stimulus to a muscle add nutritional variables and watch it grow. 

The complexity behind directing a stimulus toward a muscle on the other hand can be rather complex and frustrating. Factors of reciprocal inhibition and/or synergistic dominance may overwhelm certain targeted tissue from being ready and able to receive a stimulus. So what does this have to do with growing a world class ass to balance champagne on? Ok so we know the gluteus acts as abductors and adductors, extensors & flexors (gluteus medius anterior fibers), medial and lateral rotators. 

Yup the glutes are integrated in pretty much every hip action possible which makes them even more receptive to synergistic dominance and or reciprocal inhibition. So how does synergistic dominance or reciprocal inhibition occur in the hip? The answer is simple overuse of certain angles of movement using too much load that over rides the CNS natural integration of biomechanical efficiency. Lets look at some overused angles 

1. Squats that sit back not into the hip, yup there is philosophy that so long as your spine is straight your squat will be efficient, unfortunately this ‘hypothesis’ does not take into consideration the degree of torque created through internal rotation of the femur during deep hip flexion and the corresponding effect this will have on deep gluteal musculature to contract and full engage in eccentric loading. Half squats or squats that enforce poor alignment during phases of hip flexion will only create greater force or load to hip flexors in a limited range of motion, thus creating a lack of mobility to the a. hip flexors and b. gluteals. In order to make a muscle grow you need it to eccentrically load, training in a short range for prolonged periods of time will not benefit a muscles growth! 

2. Deadlift much? Not many take into account the positioning of the lower rib to the iliac crest before performing a deadlift! Now if the two points are close to contact you can best be assured that you are about to load the hip with a facilitated QL, which has an immediate effect on the length capacity you are able to achieve in the hip flexors during the concentric phase of a deadlift! A compressed deadlift will only tighten your lower gluteus maximus fibers which will further inhibit the bulk of your ass from growing, not to mention giving you knee and lower back pain. Opt to position the start of your deadlift in a position whereby you can create a brace in between the lower rib and iliac crest whilst engaging the glutes and hamstrings to create hip extension, so elevate the bar off the floor till you can achieve this starting prime position. 

3. Global perspective: the glutes are local to the pelvis however tightness along all facial lines will inhibit growth elsewhere. If your upper traps and mid lats are tight and restricted you can be assured that the pull of fascia on the top corners of your body’s x are being stretched far away from the lower corners (your ankles) this inevitably will reduce your ability to create distance (eccentric loading) from your x (center of mass) to the lower half of your body (the glutes). As such when looking to grow your glutes remember to evaluate movement available in your shoulders. If you have restrictive movement in the scapula you should accommodate the restriction by reducing your range of motion to that of which you can ACTIVELY control. 

4. ACTIVE CONTROL: lifting weights is about creating a contractive sensation to tissue you wish to create a response in, if you feel your lower back firing or your neck straining you can be assured you have created an over-ride in your CNS to the tissue you wish to hypertrophy. chose movements that you can engage contraction and maintain control, if your ability diminishes then look at recovery strategy to increase length where non exists and reduce synaptic response where excess exists. To sum up my strategy in growing glutes is as follows 

1. asses all pelvic angles 

2. asses all scapula angles 

3. identify tissue that needs to be lengthened 

4. identify tissue that needs to be activated 

5. incorporate isometrics to engage synaptic response to dormant tissue 

6. incorporate isotonic contraction within a controlled and active range of motion. 

7. reassess every session to identify compensatory factors and work to eliminate them and optimise growth to tissue. 

* simply lifting without anatomical understanding or responsibility of what you are doing is hazardous and short lived. If you want to be a great like Sylvester Stallone looking jacked in his 60’s then lift with diligence and control!!!! Justin Maguire Fe Fitness www.fegym.com Hulk Enterprises Nutrition Biomechanics Soft tissue therapy Strength and Conditioning